Originally Posted by
judykay
A friend of mine thought she needed to shrink her batting so she washed it. Wound up with a waded mess in her washing machine. DO NOT PREWASH !!
As bearisgray mentioned, it depends on the batting. Some old fashioned cotton battings will fall apart when soaked in water because there is no permanent bonding material in it. Most of the newer battings are bonded in a way that they hold together when soaked. In general, even if a batting can be soaked, it should not be subjected to machine agitation — especially in a washing machine with a central agitator. Battings that can hold up to being soaked are generally fine with being spun out, though, and fine in a dryer. The caution is not so much to not prewash, but rather to not agitate.